The building block of the present invention is for use in the erection of retaining walls and utilizes an interconnecting system of the general type as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,685 issued Apr. 23, 1985. In that Patent, there is disclosed a building block having a specifically configured inclined frontal section and a substantially rectangular rear section having opposed aligned recesses so that when the blocks are juxtaposed, one on top of the other, these may be interconnected by a precast concrete beam of rectangular cross-section extending in juxtaposed recesses. These blocks are utilized to erect retaining walls which are oriented vertically or in an inclined manner. The angle of the retaining wall is predicated by the manner in which the first one of the blocks is disposed to form the footing. The block may be disposed horizontally in an upright or inverted manner whereby to form a vertical or inclined wall or the foundation block may be disposed at an angle within a ground surface to form a straight wall. The interconnecting beams may also be attached to anchors disposed rearwardly in the fill behind the retaining wall.
A disadvantage of these blocks is that they have an awkward cross-sectional configuration and are difficult and expensive to cast. They are also not easily stackable or storable one on top of the other as they must be oriented in a specific manner in order to do so.